Features/People

EAST NORRITON >> In August 2013, Peter Wilson made one of the most difficult decisions of his life: He dropped out of East Stroudsburg University, where he had a football scholarship, to work for Extended Stay America.

Engineering students at Westtown School have developed robotic hands for two area children. As part of the school’s Hand Project, and in conjunction with Nemours/ Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, the high school students worked for months in Westtown’s Science Institute, customizing each hand so it would fit each child accordingly.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. >> Charles P. Clark, a 107-year-old World War II veteran, has been living at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center Community Living Center since November and has pretty much seen it all.

In 1800, when she was about 12 years old, Sacagawea was kidnapped by a war party of Hidatsa Indians — enemies of her people, the Shoshones. She was taken from her Rocky Mountain homeland, located in today’s Idaho, to the Hidatsa-Mandan villages near modern Bismarck, North Dakota.

NORRISTOWN >> When most folks hear a song by an unknown artist who appeals to them, they don’t automatically consider or even care about any challenges the singer may have overcome while creating their music.

Chien-Shiung Wu grew up in Liuhe in the Jiangsu province of China. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1934 from the National Central University in Nanking, Wu came to the United States to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Women’s History Month celebrates storyteller Kristin Pedemonti. Her life mission is “telling tales, connecting cultures, building bridges; one child, one story at a time,” and her countenance glows when she performs.

According to the library of Congress, Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed legislation (Pub. L. 97-28) authorizing and requesting the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.

Sojourner Truth, born in about 1797, was a woman of remarkable intelligence despite her illiteracy. Truth had great presence. She was tall, some 5 feet 11 inches. Her voice was low, so low that listeners sometimes termed it masculine, and her singing voice was beautifully powerful.

Ida Wells was born July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Miss. and she died on March 25, 1931 in Chicago, Ill. Wells was the daughter of slaves who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.

Booker T. Washington was born April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Va., and died Nov. 14, 1915, in Tuskegee, Ala. Booker was blessed with many abilities and talents including educator and reformer, first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University, and was the most influential spokesman for black Americans between 1895 and 1915.

The Nazis seized power on Jan. 30, 1933 with Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. Following the Reichstag fire on Feb. 27 of that year, basic civil rights were suspended. On Feb. 28 the Nazis took control of the state apparatus.

Alex Haley was born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on Aug. 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York. At the time of his birth, Haley’s father, Simon Haley, a World War I veteran, was a graduate student in agriculture at Cornell University, and his mother, Bertha Palmer Haley, was a teacher.

Real birth name was Sarah Breedlove born on Dec. 23, 1867, in Delta, La. Her entrepreneur and philanthropist name was Madam C. J. Walker. One of the first female African-American entrepreneurs. Orphaned at the age of seven, she was raised by an elder sister.

WESTTOWN >> About 30 residents came to the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department on a freezing night Thursday to try to effect positive change from the senseless deaths of brother and sister Miles Hannagan and Charlotte Hannagan last Saturday night in a crash caused by an alleged drunk driver.

EAST NORRITON >> Katherine Mills celebrated her 100th birthday on Valentine’s Day much the way she prefers -- quietly and without too much excitement, surrounded by the people who care for her and about her at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born on Aug. 17, 1887, in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Self-educated, Garvey was a Social Activist who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, dedicated to promoting African-Americans and resettlement in Africa.

Paul Robeson was the epitome of the 20th-century Renaissance man. He was an exceptional athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author and political activist. His talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history.

W.E.B. Du Bois was born Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Mass. and Aug. 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana. He was an American sociologist, the most important black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.

Wallace Henry Thurman, born Aug. 16, 1902 in Salt Lake City, Utah — died Dec. 22, 1934 in New York, N.Y., was an African-American editor, critic, novelist, and playwright associated with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Jesse Owens, born Sept. 12, 1913 in Oakville, Ala. — died March 31, 1980 in Phoenix, Ariz., was an American track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Valentine’s Day is here. Signs of the day are all around — hearts, flowers, the colors pink and red — and Cupid. Some other signs are advertisements for gift ideas to show your love for your valentine.

Lorraine Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Ill., and died Jan. 12, 1965 in New York, N.Y. She was an American playwright whose “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959) was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.

pdemers@21st-centurymedia.com CHESHIRE, MASS. >> Town, county and state lost their oldest resident, Bernice Emerson Madigan, who died early Saturday morning. At 115 years, 163 days old, Madigan was the fifth-oldest person in the world.

Conshohocken >> “There will never be anyone who loves the Fel and all the children who’ve gone through its doors like Frank does,” says Dayle Malantonio, a member of the Conshohocken Fellowship House board of managers.

NORRISTOWN >> If you live in, or travel through Norristown, you’ve probably seen Richard Shoates, gliding high above the roof lines of most vehicles as he rides his one-of-a-kind red, white and blue bicycle through the streets of the municipality.

The 20th century glitters with women who helped change the course of history. Marie Curie, Indira Gandhi, Coco Chanel, Gloria Steinem and Margaret Thatcher are just some of the easily recognized stars from around the world.